Cincinnati Teachers Rebuff Bonus-Pay Design

Union leaders and administrators in Cincinnati are asking why
teachers last week rejected a joint union-district plan to give
educators bonuses if their schools could demonstrate overall
improvement.

Members of the Cincinnati Federation of Teachers voted 1,160 to 804
against the "school incentive award" program that staff representatives
and district officials designed over the past seven months.

The plan would have placed the 52,400-student Ohio district among a
growing number of systems across the country that are experimenting
with incentive-pay programs in a profession where union contracts have
traditionally had compensation based solely on teachers' education and
experience. Similar programs are at work in districts in North Carolina
and Texas, and a statewide incentive program is in place in
Kentucky.

"I don't think we had enough time to sell it, and I think some
people didn't understand it," said Greg Smith, the director of
organization for the CFT, an affiliate of the American Federation of
Teachers. "I really feel that the design team did a good job coming up
with something as fair as possible."

A Focus on Quality

Unlike earlier merit-pay programs attempted in some districts, the
Cincinnati plan would not have based the salaries of individual
teachers on their own students' performance. Instead, it would have
given cash bonuses to all teachers in any school that met improvement
targets by the end of next school year. Measurements of progress would
have taken into account student scores on state tests, student dropout
and attendance rates, and staff attendance.

"I'm not necessarily a total believer that this will get the desired
result, but I think it's worth a try," CFT President Tom Mooney said.
He said he viewed the program as a four- to five-year experiment.

"And it is a far more sound device than one based on the results of
a single class, because there are so many factors that are out of a
teacher's individual control," he said.

The district has already set five-year improvement goals for all 80
of its schools. Any school that progressed at least one-third of the
way toward its goal would have been eligible for the awards. Unlike a
few incentive programs that have allowed school personnel to decide how
to use the money, the Cincinnati district would have given full-time
teachers a straight monetary bonus of $1,400 a year.

The intent was to concentrate whole schools' staff members on
improving quality.

"It's a way for educators to stay focused on what their schools are
trying to achieve," said Kathleen T. Ware, an assistant superintendent
in the district.

Trying Again

Even if teachers had approved the incentive program, the plan still
faced another hurdle. Union leaders and administrators agreed that the
bonuses would not be covered by current district funds. Instead, they
hoped to raise the money--a minimum of about $400,000 for the first
year--from outside sources, including local business groups.

"To me, it seems well worth a business community's investment
because it's an element of the system that will rivet everyone's
attention on performance," said Allan R. Odden, a University of
Wisconsin-Madison education professor who co-directs the Consortium for
Policy Research in Education. He also advised the Cincinnati
negotiators.

Union and district leaders said last week it was too early to say
why teachers turned down the chance to earn extra money.

"We're going to find out why," Ms. Ware said. "Some may have felt
that it wasn't right for a professional to receive a bonus or thought,
'I'm working as hard as I can, and I'm not going to work any harder if
I get a bonus,' though that wasn't the intent of it. Or there may be
concern of tying pay in any way to student performance," she said.

Both sides agreed not to drop the idea. They plan to survey teachers
to find out what about the proposal turned them off. They also agreed
to keep soliciting money to pay for such bonuses in the event that
teachers approve the plan in another vote in the fall.

"School-based incentive programs are very controversial," Mr. Odden
said. "Once the programs are in place, though, you generally find
people feeling better about them."

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